Printing a Round section of an image only - help please

[Stagecoach]

I have a rectangular image in both dng or jpeg format of which I want to select a circular area of it and print that circular area only.

I have no problem selecting the circular area I want and erasing the pixels outside of that circular area.

My problem is that the way I am saving it or the format causes it to print as the entire original rectangular area.

Imagine wanting to simply print a blue circle on red paper, whatever I do I get a blue circle with an unwanted white rectangle around it on my red paper

There is an easy answer I'm sure but I'm missing it at present !

PS. I use Elements

Grahame

[Aeros]

Give this a try. create two layers, background and layer 1. The image you want in the circle will be on the background layer, draw or select your circle on the top layer 1 then select cut, then flatten the image and print. Please let me know if this works.

[Geoff F]

Which format are you using, Grahame?

You will need something which supports transparency such as the correct form of Tiff or PNG, PSD, etc. Jpeg doesn't work.

Possibly you can arrange your circular image so it finishes up on a white background which should also work.

Sometimes when I get strange problems I export my image, in a transparent format, to my desktop publishing software which seems to work without any difficult. issues.

[Stagecoach]

Give this a try. create two layers, background and layer 1. The image you want in the circle will be on the background layer, draw or select your circle on the top layer 1 then select cut, then flatten the image and print. Please let me know if this works.

Richard, I have already gone this route to the stage where I have a single layer (after flattening) that nicely shows my image as a circular area of what I want surrounded by an area outside of it that shows that it's transparent. This in PSD format.

When saved in either Jpeg or BMAP the 'transparent' area prints as white. There has to be a very simple solution

Grahame

[Stagecoach]

Which format are you using, Grahame?

You will need something which supports transparency such as the correct form of Tiff or PNG, PSD, etc. Jpeg doesn't work.

Possibly you can arrange your circular image so it finishes up on a white background which should also work.

Sometimes when I get strange problems I export my image, in a transparent format, to my desktop publishing software which seems to work without any difficult. issues.

Geoff, I have done all the work in PSD so need to explore further a format I can save to that supports transparent.

If it were going to be printed on white paper I would have no problem but my client wants to print it on coloured paper. By 'client', I mean those that assume because I have a big black camera I can sort anything out regarding 'pictures' for them by yesterday

Grahame

[Geoff F]

When saved as a Jpeg, or a few other formats the white will reappear because those don't support transparency. I have certainly done what you want in the past, but I exported it to my text printing software as a PNG with the transparency option selected.

Just a thought but why are you flattening the image?

What I did was to copy the image, with the transparent areas removed, then pasted as a new image with a transparent background selected. Then saved as PNG.

[DanK]

I had a related problem several years ago. I don't recall the details, but I think I ended up saving the file as a png to preserve the transparency.

I wonder what would happen if you put the PSD into LR and printed from there. I am not at my main computer, so I can't try it.

[Mike Buckley]

I have the ideal solution, Grahame: Print the image including the white part. Tell your client to cut a round circle in the coloured paper and to glue that paper to the top of the photo. I'm such a nice guy that I won't send you an invoice for providing such a helpful suggestion.

[DanK]

PS: can't you print directly from the cropped image without saving it in any format at all?

[Stagecoach]

Update to all assisting......................................... ....

I have just managed to print the 'circular' area only onto a piece of coloured paper.

How I did it................

a) With two files open in Elements, one a New 'transparent' file, the other the image that was sent to me by email.

b) I then selected the circular area required, copied and pasted it into the 'transparent' file.

c) This file was then saved as a PNG.

d) Opening this saved PNG file in Elements and printing from Elements on coloured paper just the circular area printed (no white surround). Brilliant !!!!


Then sent the same PNG file to the 'client' who replied that when they opened the file and copy paste into a Word Document, it still comes across as a square when printed!

So the Elements side is all sorted and saving in PNG format giving whats required, I'll now sort out their Word program problem.

Thanks for the assistance.

Grahame

[DanK]

I don't think Word will support a transparent background. It will just paste the circular image onto its own image of a piece of paper.

[Stagecoach]

I don't think Word will support a transparent background. It will just paste the circular image onto its own image of a piece of paper.

Dan,

I have managed since the above to paste the PNG file myself into a standard word document and on printing on coloured paper I got exactly what was required, a round picture (no rectangular outer) so Word accounted for the transparent background ok.

I'm still awaiting a reply from the 'client' to some questions I sent them.

So at present the only logical conclusion I can come to is if I can do it and they can't they can not be using the file I sent them


Edit : Update, my conclusion was correct they were still using the original JPEG and not the PNG I had sent later. Everyone's now happy

Grahame

[jcuknz]

You will also experience the problem of the 'white surround' if you tried to post the image to a website ... you will need to use 'snail mail' and send the finished item to the guy who thinks you know everything
Frustrating I know but not all animals are equal [computer systems]

[Stagecoach]

John,

I may have confused things by typing DNG in my final sentence by mistake instead of PNG as all previous references.

Just tried posting the PNG file here and previewing, no problem, TinyPics recognised the transparent and just the circular image could be seen when previewed. I have removed it as it's not my image and not sure of ownership/copyright status.

Grahame